Big Family Brouhaha

We enjoyed Tim Drake's column on large families ("The Family as a Sign of Contradiction,” Commentary & Opinion, Oct. 19-25).

We were blessed with five sons and three daughters who now range in age between 26 and 41. Our son Mike told me that, when he relates that he is one of eight siblings, he usually hears, “You must be Catholic!” ("Fortunately, yes,” would be a good response.)

We are contributing to society: one career U.S. Army West Point graduate, one electrical engineer, two teachers, one registered nurse, a computer expert, a human-resources manager and a second-year medical-school student. All this and 11 grandchildren, too (so far).

When my husband was confronted by a fellow carpenter who told him that it was people like us who were a drain on society — he said it cost him money to educate our children — my husband let the fellow worker know how wrong he was. “Our children are educated in Catholic schools,” he told him. Meanwhile we were supporting, through our payment of real-estate taxes, the fellow worker's children's education.

We thank God for the blessing of children.

CONSTANCE L. EARL Lombard, Illinois

The Other Side of Family Size

In regards to Tim Drake's commentary on “The Family as a Sign of Contradiction” (Oct 19-25) and the letters that followed, I could also be rich if I had a dollar for all the times I've heard Catholics comment on my one child. God and I know the reason why I have only one, but I repeatedly see an attitude in our Church that having a large family somehow makes you holier. Or the attitude that, as long as you're still young, you should be having more children.

There are many reasons why people don't have children, why they have one or two, or why they have many. The secular society may have its ideas about family size, but Catholics also exhibit some hard-line attitudes. This is a lesson to everyone to be careful about comments made one way or the other.

And, Tim, God bless you and your family.

SANDY WESSELMAN Little Falls, Minnesota

Fox News: Fair on Life?

In an Oct. 12-18 letter, “Unfair and Unbalanced?,” Francois Quinson cited Fox News Channel commentators Mara Liasson and Morton Kondracke for their unprofessional statements that the Supreme Court legalized abortion for only the first three months of pregnancy. They made these remarks during a broadcast of the “Special Report” newscast on Jan. 22, 2003.

These commentators have heard a good deal since (including Mr. Quinson's letter) proving the Supreme Court legalized abortion for the entire term of pregnancy and there was no way a competent commentator would say such a thing 30 years after the fact.

On Oct.21, during a discussion of the partial-birth abortion bill, Mr. Kondracke changed his position and correctly stated that abortion is legal even after the baby is viable. Ms. Liasson, although not explicitly saying so, seemed to agree. Of course, they would have sounded foolish if they restated their January position during a discussion about late-term abortions.

Fox News says it is “fair and balanced,” but not all its journalists are. Alan Colmes maintains that the pre-born are not human and that science proves it, although he offers no proof. Bill O'Reilly claims that the pre-born are only “potentially human.”

Throughout history when one group is targeted for killing or subservience, their humanity is denigrated or denied. The Nazis called the Jews unter menchen (subhuman):

“The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but not human” (Adolph Hitler, 1923).

“A parasite in the body of other peoples” (Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1925).

“The sub-human, that biologically seemingly complete creation of nature with hands, feet and a kind of brain, with eyes and mouth, is nevertheless a completely different, dreadful creature. He is only a rough copy of a human being, with human-like facial traits but nonetheless morally and mentally lower than any animal ... For all that bear a human face are not equal” (From the German Race and Settlement Main Office, 1942).

Colmes and O'Reilly may not realize they are treating the pre-born as the Nazis did Jews, but in truth they are. They are certainly being unprofessional by misinforming viewers. Their ignorance of the life of the pre-born, however, is culpable, certainly not “fair and balanced.”

CAROLYN NAUGHTON Silver Spring, Maryland